TIME-LAPSE MONITORING OF CELL MECHANICAL PROPERTIES

1 PŘIBYL Jan
Co-authors:
2 ROTREKL Vladimir 2 PEŠL Martin 2 JELÍNKOVÁ Šárka 3 KRATOCHVÍLOVÁ Irena
Institutions:
1 CEITEC MU, CF Nanobiotechnology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, EU, jan.pribyl@ceitec.muni.cz
2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, EU, vrotrekl@med.muni.cz
3 Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences Czech Republic v.v.i, Prague, Czech Republic, EU, krat@fzu.cz
Conference:
12th International Conference on Nanomaterials - Research & Application, Brno, Czech Republic, EU, October 21 - 23, 2020
Proceedings:
Proceedings 12th International Conference on Nanomaterials - Research & Application
Pages:
416-421
ISBN:
978-80-87294-98-7
ISSN:
2694-930X
Published:
28th December 2020
Proceedings of the conference were published in Web of Science and Scopus.
Metrics:
877 views / 369 downloads
Abstract

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a highly sensitive non-invasive surface method able to provide insight into cells' mechanical parameters. Membrane and sub-membrane development, as well as internal cellular properties, can be monitored. The stiffness of cells is a fundamental phenomenon that reflects changes in cell physiology. More importantly, changes in cell mechanical properties are also often found to be closely associated with various disease conditions. Cell mechanics are mainly dependent on cytoskeletal architecture. The development of cryopreserved cells' mechanical properties (stiffness) after thawing was studied using AFM. Cell stiffness was mapped and thus monitored in time and space under nearly physiological conditions (i.e., in culture medium and at elevated temperature). In AFM force spectroscopy mode, cells are indented at many sites, and their complete elastic responses are recorded, enabling them to reconstruct a stiffness map. We measured the frozen cell surface stiffness immediately after thawing; they, when the dynamics of development of the cell stiffness were monitored in time up to 24 hours. Moreover, the AFM spectroscopy was combined with fluorescence-based staining of the cytoskeleton, thus enabling to directly correlate cytoskeleton development with stiffness mapping.

Keywords: Atomic Force Microscopy, Mechanical Mapping, Cell stiffness, Cryopreservation

© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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